Rose Colored Lenses
by Madeleine Jane
Summary: Rebecca Ramsey has been close with the Pike family since she was 8 years old. She has never felt anything but love and acceptance from Dee and John Pike. What happens though, when a friendship with one of their sons turns into something more?
1. Saved by the bell

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters recognizable from the book series "The Babysitters Club." Any characters that seem familiar to you are owned by Ann M. Martin and Scholastic Inc. Any characters that are unrecognizable belong to my brain._

_Authors Note: I got bored and decided to toy with the idea of this story. This is sort of a test-run, so reviews would be helpful. Any kind of_**_constructive_**_criticism/praise is more than welcome, appreciated, and needed. I'm on Christmas break and my mechanics may be off, so please tell me if you catch something here that seems wrong. There's nothing I hate more than poor grammar! Most importantly, enjoy this story written by a girl who needs to keep herself entertained by doing this!_

**Chapter 1**

"Helomph?" I said groggily into my phone. If there's one thing I hate, it's being woken up. The only thing I hate more than being woken up is being disturbed by a ringing cell phone. Most people know that I sleep until noon on weekends, except of course maybe the jerk on the other end of the phone.

"Good morning sunshine!" the perky voice on the other end said.

I groaned at phone. Perky people should not be allowed to contact other human beings before a certain time.

"Rebecca? Are you there?" Vanessa asked.

"I'm here, I'm here," I said sitting up in my bed. I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock on my nightstand. 9:15. This had better be good.

"Why weren't you in homeroom this morning? Are you sick?" Vanessa asked me in a whisper.

Why was Vanessa whispering? Homeroom? I started to feel panicked. That's when I noticed my books spread out around me and I suddenly had a flashback to the night before. As soon as I'd gotten home from visiting my boyfriend, I'd cracked my books and studied for my history test. I was in AP History this year as a junior (my guidance counselor had suggested that I skip Pre-AP), so I felt the pressure to try harder than usual to get a decent grade. Suddenly, I was awake.

"Oh my gosh, Vanessa I'll be there in 20 minutes!" I said into the phone. History class started in 5 minutes. It would take me that long to fully open my eyes. "Vanessa, listen to me. Stall as long as you can. Ask Mr. Neumann some long drawn out question, anything, just give me 20 minutes!" I barked into the phone. I shut it quickly and sprang out of bed.

I threw open my closet and grabbed my lucky Yankees t-shirt and my favorite hoodie to go over it. After I pulled my shirt over my head, I stumbled over to my dresser and grabbed a change of underwear, socks, and a pair of jeans. I got dressed quickly and threw my books into my bag. I grabbed my car keys from the hook by the door. After giving myself a quick once-over in the front hall mirror, I ran to my car (a brand new electric blue Chevy Cobalt-courtesy of my dad for turning Sweet 16) and hopped in.

Somehow I managed to obey all traffic signs and still make it to school in 15 minutes. I stopped in the front office to get a tardy slip. My once best friend, Charlotte Johanssen, was working as an office helper-just as she did every other first period that I've been late for. I managed to smile at her, despite what had happened to our friendship in recent years.

"How are you today Bec-Rebecca?" she asked me. "I forgot you like to be called Rebecca now," she said smiling apologetically.

"It's no big deal Char," I reassured her. "Becca, Rebecca….I'm over it," I said trying not to remember the horrible hissy fits I'd had over being called Becca. Somewhere in my 13 year old mind,, I'd decided that Rebecca was so much more mature than Becca.

Charlotte handed me a tardy slip and after thanking her, I ran down the hall and up the stairs to my history class. Mr. Neumann was in the middle of explaining the underlying reasons for the economical issues during the Revolutionary War when I walked in. Vanessa, who'd had her hand poised in the air to ask another question, lowered it when she saw me.

I gave my tardy slip to the teacher before slipping into my seat next to Vanessa. "Thanks for calling me," I whispered to her as I put my books down.

"Hey, no problem," she whispered back. "To be honest, I was worried about waking you," she said with a smirk.

"I think I'll let it slide this time."

Mr. Neumann cleared his throat. "If there are no more questions or distractions," he said looking pointedly at Vanessa and me "we can stop wasting our time and start the exam. You have 40 minutes. You may begin when you get your exam. Use a separate piece of paper as usual, we save trees that way." He handed out the exams. I felt it. Not too terribly thick.

Sighing, I wrote my name at the top of my paper and prayed that the rush to school had been worth it.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. When it was over, I stopped at my locker and switched my history and math books for those that I would need for the night.

I stood on the tip of my toes to reach my French book on the top shelf. These lockers were not made for someone who was only 5'2. My older sister Jess had gotten my father's giant genes. I, on the other hand,, and I was stuck with tree trunks for legs.

Another hand beat me to my book. I turned around and smiled at the person it was attached to-Adam Pike, Vanessa's older brother.

"What are you doing here?" I said throwing my arms around his neck. I gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I'm here to pick up the siblings." Adam had graduated the year before, and now attends Stoneybrook University, much to is dismay. He'd wanted to go away to an out of state school, but the Pikes have 8 children who need to attend college-including his older sister Mallory who was a sophomore at SU and his brothers, who are also freshmen. Adam, Byron, and Jordan are triplets and the college had given the Pikes a special tuition discount since they were putting so much money into the school. Adam had taken advantage of this by living on campus, even though his family is only a 10 minute drive away. He'd told them he wouldn't get the full college experience if he didn't live on campus, and would drop out otherwise. I would have done the same thing if I'd spent 18 years living with 7 brothers and sisters. I love the Pike family but they are a bit much sometimes.

"How sweet of you. A big and strong college man picking his younger siblings up from school? I like…," I said.

"Well, I do what I can to perform my civic duty," he said sarcastically.

I leaned in to steal another kiss when I saw Vanessa heading towards us. I backed away quickly and went back to pulling things out of my locker.

The thing is, Vanessa doesn't know that I'm dating her brother. Adam and I aren't sure how well it would go over with her. After all, she's my best friend and it's a bit weird to think that I'm dating her brother sometimes. Adam thinks that we should just be open about our relationship, but I have a bad feeling about it. I don't know why. It's just a gut feeling.

Vanessa approached us and playfully punched her brother in the shoulder. All of the Pike siblings are very close, but Adam and Vanessa are particularly special to one another. "You ready brutha?" she asked grabbing him by the arm.

"Yeah, where's Nick?" Adam wanted to know.

"Already in the car. He said that instead of wasting time looking for you, he'd rather waste his life inside of the vehicle that should have been his," she said rolling her eyes.

Nick Pike has always been sort of the outcast in his family and when he got to high school he became even more emo than he'd been as a kid.

"We better get going then. Wouldn't want him to waste away," Adam said with a wink. "Bye Becky," he said walking away. He was the only person in the world who could get away with calling me a name like "Becky."

"Call me later so that we can hang out," Vanessa told me, following behind her brother.

I closed my locker and picked my bag up from the floor. As I lifted it onto my shoulder, I noticed a folded piece of paper on the floor. I opened it.

_B- I'll be at my parent's house until 7. I promised them I'd have dinner there tonight. You should drop in. Love, A._

I smiled and pulled out my phone. Vanessa had said to call her later. And 2 minutes later was technically still later.

"Hey Vanessa, what time do you want to hang out?"


	2. Dinner and an introduction of sorts

Before I go on any further, I should probably clear a few things up and perhaps introduce myself to you.

My name is Rebecca Ramsey. I'm 16 years old and I'm a junior at Stoneybrook High School. I have a sister named Jess, who is a sophomore at Tuskegee University, a historically black college in Alabama. If you ask me, I think it's somewhat hypocritical to attend a "black" college, but "white" colleges would be breaking some kind of law somewhere. I have a mother and a father, and a younger brother named JP(we used to call him Squirt, but the day he turned 3 he decided to assert his independence and speak out against it.). JP stands for John Phillip. He's 8 and a half years old.

We moved to Stoneybrook when I was JP's age, from a town in New Jersey. My family had a hard time fitting in here because we're black. I had a much easier time than Jess and my parents because I was so young. Young children tend to see life through rose colored lenses, I guess. To a child, everyone is the same color. Or maybe they don't see color at all. Either way, I'm grateful because I can't imagine how I would have handled racism at such a young age.

Sure there were kids who wouldn't talk to me because their parents had told them not to, and there were comments from kids like Zachary Dill, who told me that I was black because God accidentally left me in the oven for too long. And sometimes I can sense that people have a problem with me because of my race. Overall though, my experiences with racism have been rare (with a few exceptions).

I like to believe that one of the reasons I've been so lucky is because of the Pike family. Having them on your side is really like being backed by the mob. There are a lot of them to deal with, and if you make one angry, you have to deal with the whole group. I've been sort of adopted into that family over the years.

First there's Mallory, who is my sister Jess' on- again-off- again best friend. Their friendship is complicated, but they're the reason that I'm friends with the Pikes. Mallory is 19, and as I said before she's a student at Stoneybrook University. She is majoring in Public Relations, which is a decision that came from left-field. I see Public Relations as a cutthroat business,, and Mallory is the opposite of cutthroat. She can be opinionated—it took her awhile to learn to assert herself. Now that she's grown more comfortable in her skin, she can put a spin on anything. In those terms, her career choice makes sense. PR also involves a lot of writing, which Mallory loves. She used to dream of being an author,, but she gave up on that awhile ago.

Then we have Adam, Byron, and Jordan. Don't tell them that I'm grouping them together. They would kill me. They're 18 years old and they too also attend Stoneybrook University. Byron is majoring in Biology, Adam is majoring in Art, and Jordan? Well, he's majoring in Jordan as far as I know. He's somewhat self- obsessed and can be a jerk; he's definitely not my favorite person in the world. Luckily I never have to see him because he lives in an apartment with some friend of his. And Byron? Well, I'm indifferent to Byron. When he's not in his room or out with his girlfriend, he's in the lab at the University working on homework. I never see him either. He's definitely more sensitive than both Adam and Jordan. I like Adam because he's a happy medium. He isn't as sensitive as Byron, but he isn't a jerk like Jordan.

Adam and I started dating a couple of months ago.

When we were younger, we never saw much of each other because. As far as I was concerned, boys went to Jupiter to get more stupider, and his interest in girls was non-existent. It wasn't until my freshman year of high school that I noticed how nicely he had grown up. Years of baseball had done the boy good. You would think that he would look exactly like his brothers, and yes, physically there were similarities. There was just something different about Adam. Maybe it was the way he kept his brown hair short in a buzz cut, while his brothers kept theirs long and spiky. Or maybe it was the way he actually paid attention to me when I came over to visit Vanessa, unlike his brothers who ignored me. Whatever it was, I was in lust. We flirted a lot off and on over the course of the year, but in August, after he'd graduated high school, Adam got up enough courage to ask me out on a date. It was nothing special, really. We ate at Renwick's and then went for a walk around Stoneybrook. It was so simple and nice, and a night that I'll never forget.

Since then, we've been sneaking away and hanging out at various places around town that none of my friends or his family members frequent. If we have money, we will go to Stamford or Greenvale on a nice date. We've also spent many nights hanging out in his dorm room. But no one in his family knows that we're together, and that's my fault I guess. I'm not really even allowed to have a boyfriend,, so my parents don't know either. I'd rather keep it under wraps until we've been dating a little longer.

Vanessa is the next member of the Pike clan. She's a year older than me. She's 17 and a senior at SHS. We've been good friends since I moved to Stoneybrook and over the years we've ended up being best friends, just as our sisters were. She's been like a sister to me, for some reason she just…gets me. She understands me, and I understand her. We've been through thick and thin together, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost her as a friend. I was there for her when she decided that she no longer wanted to speak in rhyme. She was there for me when I decided that I no longer wanted to be a dancer like my older sister. And we were there for each other when we both decided to start-and stop-smoking. It was one of those things we wanted to do because it seemed to be the "cool" thing to do. Yeah, we were dumb.

Nick Pike is next. He's my age and is a junior like me. Even though we've grown up together and have had most of the same classes with each other, we're not particularly close. He frequents between the pot-head skater kids in school and the emo kids who start different bands every week. This week he's in a band called No Name Film.

Margo Pike is a sophomore at SHS and she's a cheerleader. She's become very self- obsessed lately, much like her brother Jordan and won't wear anything that doesn't come from Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister. That presents a problem for her. Since it costs $50 to walk into those stores, her parents won't buy those clothes for her. So when she's not at cheerleading practice, she's working. She got a job at Abercrombie-hey, at least she gets a good discount.

Finally, there's Claire. She's in 8th grade at Stoneybrook Middle School, and she's a pretty cool kid. She's somewhat of a hippie. She makes it a point not to wash her hair, it wastes water. She recently decided that she wanted to be a vegetarian, and rants and raves about global warming and the environment. It's pretty funny to watch, and I'm disappointed to say that it's probably just a phase.

Oh, and the Pike parents are pretty cool too. They've always been so nice to me and my sister, and they take us on family vacations with them every summer. They tell me all the time that they'd like to trade one of their own children in for me because I'm "such a sweet young lady". I've never had a problem with them, and they've never had a problem with me. Generally, they're pretty liberal as far as parenting goes. When we were younger, I was always jealous of the Pike children because they could eat what they wanted, go to sleep when they wanted, and didn't have any rules at all short of not performing attempted murder on their siblings. As the kids got older, the rules loosened up even more and after the age of 16 curfew is non-existent as long as they check in by midnight and tell them where they'll be for the night.

And that's the Pike family. I love them and as far as I know they love me.

I pulled in front of the Pike house and shut off my car. Pushing the button to lock my doors, I made my way up to the front door and let myself in. I've been coming to this house for so long that I never even think to knock, nor am I expected to.

I dropped my bag in the front hall, and walked into the living room where I found Claire reading a book called _Meet Your Meat._ She looked up and smiled as she saw me.

"Did you know that by eating meat, we're not only hurting the animals but we're hurting the climate?" she greeted me.

"Uh...well...no I didn't know that Claire," I said. I felt like a deer caught in headlights. I'm sorry Mother Earth, but I love my bacon and I love my steak. I like the climate too. Just not as much as meat.

"There's a lot that meat eaters don't know," she replied. "I can't believe I've spent so many years harming those who can't even defend themselves..." she trailed off as she raised her book back to eye level.

I continued to make my way through the house. I said a quick hello to Byron who was headed into the basement. I found Vanessa in the kitchen, helping her mom chop vegetables.

"Hey Rebecca," Vanessa said looking up from the carrot she was chopping. She seemed to be in a deep concentration.

Mrs. Pike on the other hand, dropped her knife and made her way over to me with open arms. "Rebecca, it's been so long since we've seen you around here!"

I laughed. "It's only been like 4 days!" I told her.

"Yeah, but usually we can't get you to leave!" she said jokingly. She hugged me again.

"Well, I've been busy. School and stuff." When she let me go, I walked over to one of the bar stools placed at the counter and took a seat.

"Yeah, school. Is that what you kids are calling it nowadays?" She raised her eyebrow. "Come on, who's the boy?" she asked slyly. She came up to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. "Is he cuuuuute?" she teased, rocking me from side to side.

I giggled. "There's no boy! I promise!"

"Fine, fine, don't tell me. I've only opened up my home to you and let you eat out of my refrigerator for the past 8 years.." She pretended to sniffle. "I'm no one important," she said, poking her bottom lip out. She walked back over to her cutting board.

I stared at her blankly. "What did you say your name was again, ma'am?"

She picked up a dish towel and threw it at me. "So what are you doing for dinner, kiddo? Are you joining us tonight?"

"Are you extending an invitation?" I asked walking over to the fridge. I grabbed a Capri Sun, and pulled out the straw. I fiddled with the little hole on the front. Why do they make these things so difficult to open?

"Well yes I am, my dear,." she said in a phony British accent. She could be so silly sometimes.

"I graciously accept then."

"You guys are so weird," Vanessa cut in, speaking for only the second time since I'd been there.

"No! You're just soooo boring!" Mrs. Pike replied dramatically, resting the back of her hand against her forehead.

"I'd rather be boring than a freak!" Vanessa shot back.

Mrs. Pike and I looked at each other, pretending to be offended. I put my hand over my heart. "She did NOT just...I'm speechless!" I said.

"You're speechless? For the first 9 years of her life _**I**_ had to listen to her speak in rhyme!"

Vanessa will never live those years down. Ever.

I walked over to the counter and helped with dinner. When we were done, we had pork chops, mashed potatoes, and a salad for Claire.

Mrs. Pike rounded up the troops for dinner, and we took our places at the table. I ended up next to Adam, which was good for a number of reasons. For one, we couldn't make googley eyes at each other across the table and give ourselves away.

It's hard to pretend that he's just anyone else when we're around his family.

We have a very...physical relationship (we haven't gone all the way though), and it's hard to turn that off when we're together...but have to pretend that we're not together. As the food was being passed around the table, Adam made it a point to brush his fingers against mine as he passed each bowl of food to me. And I made it a point to rest my leg against his under the table.

Dinner with the Pike family is always fun, but there's always a huge mess to clean up afterwards as well. When I join them I always make it a point to help with the dishes. Adam knows that, which is why he made the initial offer to help with the dishes.

Mrs. Pike felt his forehead. "Honey, are you feeling okay?" she asked jokingly.

"Mooom, I'm fine," he said removing her hand. "I just feel like pitching in for once, what's wrong with that?"

"Everything when your name is Adam Pike," she replied. "But whatever, I'll take it." ," she said quickly getting up from the table.

She and the other Pike children left the room, and soon it was just me and Adam. Alone. Making sure the coast was clear, he made his way over to me slowly and pulled me into a kiss. I pushed him away quickly.

"Adam...you know we can't do this here," I told him.

"Becky, I'm tired of this. If I want to make out with my girlfriend, I should be able to," he replied.

"Adam...that's just not possible babe.." " I grabbed a few dishes off the table and carried them over to the sink. I ran some dishwater and began washing. "You know I don't want to tell anyone yet," I said as I washed ranch dressing off of a plate. I handed the plate to Adam.

Grabbing a towel, he dried the plate and sighed. "This isn't fair and you know it."

"Life isn't fair," I said simply.

We did the dishes in an awkward silence for awhile. At one point Mrs. Pike came in and took a picture of us, claiming that she would never get another opportunity to see Adam washing dishes. After she left, we got back to washing.

When we finally finished, I drained the water and moved closer to Adam. I stood on the tip of my toes to give him a peck on the cheek since he's considerably taller than me. Adam intercepted the move though, and stopped me.

"Why are you ashamed of me?" he asked pushing me away.

"What...I'm not ASHAMED of you!" I exclaimed. "Why would you think that?"

He sat down at the kitchen table and I joined him. "Well, you don't want to tell anyone that we're dating. What else am I supposed to think?"

I grabbed his hand. "Adam-" I began as Vanessa walked into the kitchen. I let go of his hand, feeling panicked. I must have looked it too.

"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" Maybe I could play stupid.

"What are you guys talking about? Why do you both look so serious?" She looked at me and then she looked at her brother. Then she looked at me again. "Well?" she said when neither of us answered.

"Nothing," Adam said finally. He stood up from his chair. "I've gotta go, I have homework to do." He left the kitchen without looking back at either of us.

I sighed and forced a smile at Vanessa. "I'd better go too. I haven't even started my French project yet," I said quietly.

"Okay..." she said. "I'll walk you out?"

"No, that's okay. You don't have to, Nessa," I told her. "See you tomorrow." I gave her a quick hug and walked to the front hall where I'd left my stuff. I called goodbye to the rest of the family, and ran down the driveway to catch Adam who was just climbing into his car.

"Wait!" I called to him.

He paused. "Becky...I don't want to deal with this right now."

"Adam, I'm sorry," I whimpered, trying not to cry. The look in his eyes was unlike any I'd ever seen before. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.

"I know you are." He stared at me for a few seconds before speaking again. He sighed. I made him do that a lot. "Look, I can't do this anymore. Meet me back at my room. We need to settle this once and for all."

I nodded. It didn't sound like I had much of a choice in the matter. I walked to my car and climbed in. Adam backed out of the driveway and started down the street. I followed him. I could feel my heart beating in my throat the whole way to campus.


	3. I don't want to lose you

_Thanks so much for the positive reviews! Writing is something that I love doing, but unfortunately I don't get the chance to do it for fun as much as I'd like. I'm a bit rusty, so thanks for the encouragement. A couple of things in particular:  
**hollistar**__ Thanks for the hyphen tip. Hyphens are those bloody things that I stop and ask myself over and over if I should use them, and then I'm like 'naahh'. I'll try to stop being lazy with them! __J  
**YellowRoseOfTexas **__I fought with myself over the lenses/glasses variation. I decided that lenses sounded better for some reason, and that'll play into the story later. But you're right, it's usually glasses. :-p_

_Enough of my blabbering. On with the story!_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Usually when I drive through downtown Stoneybrook, I manage to catch every single light while it's red. It's one of those never fail occurrences that can only be matched to the leaves changing colors in autumn. Me and red lights are predictable, they're expected. It's become a really big joke for my friends, when I'm driving us through town I'm known as "Red-Light Rebecca."

Not tonight though. Just my luck.

Adam pulled into the parking lot in front of his dorm. I followed suit, silently praying that I wouldn't come back outside to another parking ticket on my car. SU is a relatively large university with about 13,000 students, but campus security is lousy. The rent-a-cops patrol the parking lots looking for cars without parking stickers. I've fallen victim to this 14 times too many.

I followed my boyfriend into the building and down the hall to room 132. His roommate Daniel was sitting at his desk, pecking away at the keyboard of his laptop. He looked up when we walked into the room.

"More sneaking around, eh?" he asked standing up from his chair.

"Something like that." Adam replied. He took his jacket off and tossed it on his bed.

Daniel closed his laptop and stuffed it into his computer bag. He's the only one who knows about our relationship and respects the fact that we don't get much time together. He always makes it a point to get lost when Adam and I need time alone. We both appreciate it a lot, but I feel bad. He shouldn't feel as if he should leave HIS room I guess our situation sucks for everyone involved.

"See you guys later." he said heading out the door. When it closed behind him, I looked at Adam expectantly, waiting for him to make the first move. He stared back.

"I don't think I should have to be the first one to talk, Becky." he started, reading my mind.

"Well--" I started to defend myself but he kept going.

"But I really care about you and this relationship. But I can't keep doing this." He took a seat on his bed and I followed suit. He took my hand into his. "We've been together for nearly 3 months and the only person who knows about us is my roommate. Call me crazy, but I'm tired of lying and I'm tired of feeling like you're ashamed to claim me."

"I swear to you I'm not ashamed of you." I told him. "I don't know how many times you expect me to say that, but I'm not. I just don't understand what you want from me."

"It's simple. Let's stop hiding our relationship." He shrugged his shoulders, as if he'd just said something as simple as 'Yes Becky, the sky is indeed blue.'

I closed my eyes, searching my brain for the right words. I took a deep breath, and leaned against the wall next to the bed. I was silent for awhile, as I broke the situation down in my head.

* * *

_Originally I'd wanted to hide our relationship from my parents. They have a strict "no serious dating until you're 18" policy that I was expected to follow. I didn't understand that because when my sister was only 11 her boyfriends were staying the night at our house, but after her second pregnancy scare my parents had decided to be a little more strict with me. And by being a little more strict, they'd gone to the extreme. So while I was allowed to go on the occasional date, they had to be supervised by one of my parents, his parents, or another friend. They would flip out if they knew that I'd been on many, many dates. They would have multiple heart attacks if they heard that most of those dates were with Adam in his dorm room. _

_Another problem that my parents would have is the fact that Adam is white. I know, it sounds stupid but they've made it known that they'd rather my sister and I stay with our "own kind", whatever that's supposed to mean. They say that as long as we're happy, they're happy. According to them, they're just worried about what the rest of the world would think._

_I say to hell with the rest of the world._

_They move us to a predominantly Caucasian town, and expect us not to date outside of our race? Whatever._

_I haven't explained the race thing to Adam yet, I wouldn't want to upset him even more--or worse have him break up with me. I honestly think that he would, because he wouldn't want to be the cause of anything negative between me and my parents. That's just the kind of guy that he is._

_Our problems grew bigger when we both decided that we weren't sure how Vanessa would react to our relationship. She's my best friend and she's the sibling that Adam is closest to. The problem was that she's extremely possessive of both me and Adam, and we had experienced that possessiveness many times before. _

_Vanessa is a big part of the reason Charlotte Johanssen and I aren't friends anymore. When I was a freshman in high school, I was thrilled to be in the same school as my two best friends again. They unfortunately were not friends with each other anymore, as the hierarchy of high school had taken it's toll on them. Having 3 very handsome and eligible older brothers, Vanessa had found herself hanging out with the popular girls in school, and Charlotte's friends were extremely nice but weren't very popular at all. They flew under the radar and they were happier that way. Long story short, I was forced to choose. I wanted to fit in. I chose Vanessa. I'm her best friend and she never lets me forget that._

_If she knew that Adam and I were dating, one of two things would happen. _

_ She could be THRILLED that her 2 best friends were dating. She would tag along on all of our dates and we'd become like the Three Musketeers. Then the relationship between me and Adam wouldn't grow any and we'd be forced to break up. _

_In scenario number 2, Vanessa finds out, flips her lid, stops talking to one or both of us, and forces us to either choose her or our relationship._

_ Do you see my dilemma here? _

* * *

I opened my eyes and found that Adam was still staring at me. 

"Well?" he asked raising his right eyebrow. He was so cute when he did that. Everything he did was cute. The way he raised his eyebrow, the way he frowned when he was upset, the way he held my hand even though he was made at me. I started to cry.

"Adam I'm scared." I managed to say.

He wrapped his arms around me, as if he were protecting me from a storm. "Becky, there's nothing to be afraid of." he said, stroking my hair. "What are you afraid of darling?"

I sniffled. "Everything." I bawled. "I don't want to lose you."

There. I'd said it.

He looked at me with a panic in his eyes. "What makes you think you're going to lose me?"

I shook my head, unable to answer.

Adam lowered himself onto his back and pulled me down with him. With his arms wrapped around me, I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up, it was still dark outside. I glanced at the wristwatch on Adams arm that was still draped around me. 4:37. Crap. My parents were going to kill me. I quickly sat up in the bed and climbed over Adam to get out.

"Relax." he said without opening his eyes. "I texted Vanessa and told her to cover for you."

"And what did she say?" I wanted to know. What was she going to think about me needed her to cover for me because I was with her brother?

He smiled, opening his eyes. "She said okay."

I blinked. She _had_? "I'm confused..."

"She didn't know it was me, I used your phone." he explained.

"Oh, I see." I said nodding my head slowly. I joined him on the bed again.

I buried my face in his chest and inhaled his scent. Usually I hate the smell of Axe body spray, but for some reason it smells like heaven on Adam.

"You know..." he started "Nessa's going to want to know why she's covering for you."

"I know." I said, my voice muffled from being buried into his chest.

"What are you going to tell her?"

I looked at him. "I don't know. Probably the truth."

He smiled. "Good."


	4. To Tell the Truth

_Author's Note: I can't believe it's been nearly 6 years since this story was last updated. I decided to reread some of my old work earlier tonight and felt compelled to continue this story. I remember being excited about where this was going to go, and I'm excited to get it going again. I hope that all of my old readers are still out there, and that my new readers can forgive the mechanics of the first few chapters! Happy reading! -MJ_

* * *

It was nearly 6 in the morning when I finally pulled into my driveway. As I was pulling in, my dad was leaving for work. I took a deep breath as I climbed out of my car. What had Vanessa told them? Should I have texted her to make sure the coast was clear?

"Hi, Daddy," I squeaked, as we met on the sidewalk.

"Hey there, Princess."

I squinted at him. So far, so good. I cleared my throat. I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Luckily, I didn't have to.

"I'm surprised to see you here this morning. Vanessa said you guys were up late working on your AP History timeline and that you'd probably just leave for school straight from the Pike house."

Good 'ole Vanessa. She was always able to pull out some of the best excuses for me. Me, on the other hand? I'm a terrible liar.

"Yeah, I just needed to come back here and get my books," I lied.

"Your books aren't in the backpack that you're carrying?"

See? Terrible liar. Think fast, Rebecca.

Daddy eyed me suspiciously. Just then, the front door opened. My mother stepped out to retrieve the morning paper. "Morning, Becca!"

I walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hi, Mom," I said, trying to hide the relief in my voice. "I have to go change for school. Bye Daddy!" I ran into the house without looking back.

I didn't stop running until I reached my room at the top of the stairs. I plopped down on my bed and pulled out my cell phone. I started to call Vanessa and quickly changed my mind. If I called her, she'd want answers. I wasn't ready to start giving answers. Instead, I sent her a quick text. _"Hey Nessa, thanks soooo much for covering for me. You saved my butt! See you in homeroom."_

I changed my clothes and brushed my teeth. Looking at the clock, I saw that I still had 30 minutes before I had to be in homeroom. Usually, I would take advantage of the extra time and meet up with Vanessa at Starbucks before school. Today though, I wasn't in any kind of hurry to speak to her. I'd told Adam that I would PROBABLY tell her the truth….but I still hadn't come to terms with that yet. I knew that if I didn't tell her, Adam would be mad at me. But I also knew that if I did tell her, I was probably going to lose my best friend. How did I get myself into such a big predicament?

* * *

When I got to school, I made sure to wait in my car until the warning bell rang. I knew that I'd have just enough time to slink into my seat without having to answer any of Vanessa's questions. When the warning bell rang, I made my way into the building. I walked quickly, keeping my eyes peeled. My heart raced as I neared my classroom. If she didn't cut me off, I'd have exactly 20 minutes before I had to speak to her. "Rebecca!" Crap. I pretended I didn't hear her as I quickened my pace. I could hear her footsteps behind me, picking up as well.

I made a sharp turn into the classroom and got into my seat just as the bell rang. Ms. Anderson, our homeroom teacher smiled. "Nice of you to join us on time today, Rebecca."

Vanessa came into the room a second later. "Rebecca, didn't you hear me calling you?" Before she could sit down, Ms. Anderson tapped her on the shoulder.

"You know the rules, Ms. Pike. This is your third tardy, you need to go get a pass."

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she left the room. Ms. Anderson is an extremely young and cool teacher, but she has a lot of people watching her because she's new. She's a stickler for the rules.

I pulled out my biology book and started on the assignment that was due in 3rd hour. I'd meant to work hard the night before, but obviously I'd had a few distractions. My grades were quickly slipping because of the time spent balancing the Pikes in my life, and I was determined to get them back to their previous glory.

Vanessa returned to the room a few minutes before homeroom ended and slapped the tardy slip on Ms. Anderson's desk with a hint of attitude. She sat down in her seat next to mine. "So, what's the big secret?"

"What big secret?" Playing dumb seemed to be my strong suit lately.

Vanessa looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, I don't know? You rush out of my house after dinner last night and then you text me at midnight asking me to cover for you? You don't think there's a story there?"

"There's no story….I just needed to buy some time."

She just looked at me, expecting me to say more. I told Adam that I'd probably tell the truth. Likely, perhaps, possibly, maybe. None of those words are definite.

When I didn't continue, she pried a little more. "Where were you last night, Rebecca? Who were you with? What were you doing? And why were you so upset when you left my house last night?"

When Vanessa wants to know something, she asks a million questions in a row. That makes it impossible to tell a good lie because you have to think of many lies at once. I felt my phone vibrate underneath my book. I glanced at it. It was a message from Adam. _"Is she upset? I miss you already."_

I pushed my phone back under my book before Vanessa saw the name attached to the text.

"Who is that?"

"It's just my mom," I lied.

The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. I gathered my things and left the room, hoping that Vanessa wouldn't catch up. I could already tell that I was going to spend the day avoiding her. I ducked into the bathroom. She caught up with me before I could hide in a stall to catch my breath.

"Rebecca! What is your deal today? Why do you keep avoiding me?" For the first time that day, I looked into her eyes. Usually she looked annoyed when I kept things from her, but today she looked different. She looked hurt. And scared. "I'm serious," she continued. "What aren't you telling me? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

I gave her a hug. "I swear I'm not in any kind of trouble. I was just….with someone last night. That's all."

Her eyes lit up. The warning bell rang. "Who were you with? Do I know him? OHMYGOSH, you spent the night with a boy!" By now she was squealing.

I grabbed her arm and ushered her out of the bathroom. We couldn't afford another tardy to Neumann's class. We got to class and took our seats next to each other.

"So," she leaned over and whispered with a sly grin. "Who were you with?"

Mr. Neumann came into the room and shut the door. He dimmed the lights for the PowerPoint notes. Vanessa was still waiting for an answer.

"I was with Adam," I said as the bell rang. I could only hope that it drowned his name out.

As she leaned back over to her own desk, I knew by the look on her face that she'd heard me loud and clear.


	5. Honesty Gets You Nowhere

_Wow! I can't believe that people still care about this story! Thanks so much, guys. Here's a short update, with a couple of choice words thrown in. I promise from here on out, the updates will be more frequent. Thanks!_

_MJ_

* * *

Have you ever played that awkward game with someone where you make it a point not to look in their direction? I have. I could FEEL Vanessa trying not to look my way during the class period. She's never been so attentive during one of Mr. Neumann's lectures. I didn't mind much. It's best not to look Vanessa in the eye when she's mad at you. I knew that making eye contact with her would only heighten the target on my back. I also knew that trying to talk to her first would be a mistake.

"And that, class, ends our section on the Roaring Twenties," Mr. Neumann said, exiting out of his PowerPoint presentation. He flicked the lights on. "Remember, your timelines on this era are due on Monday. I don't want to hear any excuses, you've had plenty of time to complete this assignment," Mr. Neumann announced. He continued, "How many of you need class time to make final plans with your partner? We can use the final 30 minutes to work on your projects, or we can go over yesterday's test grades."

I gulped. Vanessa and I were partners, but we'd hardly worked on it at all. We always put things off until the last minute. We worked best under pressure, or at least that's what we told ourselves.

I closed my eyes and silently prayed that my classmates would keep their hands down. Ordinarily, I would have been the first one to put my hand in the air because everyone knows that partner time is gossip time, but today was not the day to be social. Apparently, my classmates didn't care what kind of social crisis I was having, because Vanessa and I were the only two who did not raise our hands.

"Alright, the rest of the hour is yours," Mr. Neumann said.

As my classmates began pushing desks together eagerly, I slowly craned my neck to face Vanessa. Just as I'd suspected, she was facing forward, stone-faced. If my stomach hadn't dropped into my butt, I probably would have found it to be comical. Maybe I could play dumb again.

"So," I started, "do we want to begin with Prohibition and end with the Great Depression, or do we want to just cover the fun stuff in between? The parties, the nightlife, the fabulous clothes?" I tried to sound carefree and peppy, but when your stomach is in your butt, it's hard to be positive.

"How about we begin with the fact that you've been screwing my brother and end with a fuck you," she snapped without looking at me.

I tried not to flinch. Ouch. I thought that she would at least give me the silent treatment for awhile, but she was obviously ready for a fight.

I sighed. "I'm not screwing Adam," I started, "I just-"

Vanessa cut me off. "You mean to tell me that you didn't spend the night with my brother last night and then have the audacity to text me and have me cover for you? And that you haven't been hanging out with me, just to be around Adam? I mean, I thought it was strange that you both ran out last night, but it's because you couldn't keep your hands to yourselves in my mom and dad's kitchen, isn't it?"

I didn't know how to answer her questions. She's so good at firing off a million questions at once. So good.

"Look," I began gently, "I didn't want to hurt you. I HAVE been seeing Adam for awhile, but that's not why I've been hanging out with you. You know that. You've been my best friend since I was 8, Nessa."

I thought I saw her soften a bit. She turned her head ever so slightly. I took that as my cue to continue.

"As for last night…he's been frustrated with not telling anyone that we're dating and I've been scared of how everyone would react. That's why we both stormed out."

"So, you mean to tell me," she started slowly, "that my brother wanted to tell everyone about your little relationship but you couldn't trust that information with your own best friend?"

I blinked. That's what she got out of that?

"It's not that I didn't trust you, Nessa. It's just that…."

Just then, the bell rang. Vanessa gathered her books and looked me in the eye for the first time.

"Like I said, Rebecca, fuck you."

And with that, she was gone.

I gathered my books and checked my phone. Another message from Adam. _"I'm really glad you're doing this, babe. I have a good feeling about us."_

Slowly, I typed my reply to him:

_Honesty gets you nowhere. _

* * *

The rest of the day was a lethargic blur. I don't remember what we did in any of my classes; none of it seemed to matter. Luckily, Vanessa and I only had one class together and our lunch hours were separated by grade. Each time I passed her in the halls, she pretended to look the other way. I wondered how long she was going to pretend that she hadn't given me a verbal lashing.

When the day was over, I retrieved my books from my locker and headed towards my car. I couldn't wait to get home and take a long nap. Maybe when I woke up, everything would be okay. As I neared my car, I saw Adam standing there waiting for me. I groaned inwardly. After I'd replied to his message, I'd gotten a million panicked messages in return. I'd eventually turned my phone off just before lunch.

"Hey, what a surprise!" I said, trying to fake a smile. My voice totally didn't give away the fact that my best friend had found out about my relationship with her brother. Or that she'd cursed me out.

"So, we're going to pretend that you haven't been ignoring me all day?"

"Ignoring is such a harsh word," I joked.

He didn't laugh. I cleared my throat. "…has Vanessa said anything to you?" I asked him.

"I sent her a text asking her if she needed a ride home, but apparently she's ignoring me too. I'm guessing you told her about us."

"Only because you told me to!"

"I know I did, Becky. Calm down, it was just a question. How did she react when you told her?"

"Well, first she gave me the silent treatment. Then she avoided eye contact. Then she told me to fuck off." My voice quivered as I told him the story of my day.

"Becky, I'm sorry," he said softly. He wrapped his arms around my waist and looked into my eyes. I shifted my gaze to the ground, trying not to count the colors in his. I was too annoyed.

"I told you we shouldn't have told her." I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. He grabbed my chin and tilted my head up so that I was looking back at him.

"Hey, she'll be mad for awhile and she'll get over it," he said, trying to reassure me.

"No, she won't Adam. You know her just as well as I do. She's going to let this fester and she's going to hold a grudge until she can break us up. This is why we didn't want to tell her." The tears were falling slowly now.

Adam ran his finger down my cheek and wiped a tear away.

"Shhh. She isn't going to break us up. She can try all she wants, but look at me, Becky." I looked up. The softness in his voice made me melt. "She isn't going to break us up," he said again.

"How can you be sure? You know her. You know how vicious she is. Remember what she did to David Thomas and Margo?"

"I know that, Becky. But I also know…." He trailed off.

I held my breath.

"I also know that I believe in us," he said softly. "She isn't going to change that. And you finally telling her the truth? That's all that I needed to be sure."

Adam pulled me into a hug, and I let a steady stream of tears fall onto his chest. In my head, I knew that Vanessa was somewhere, plotting the first move she would make in her inevitable quest to destroy my life. But in that moment, wrapped in Adam's arms in the parking lot of Stoneybrook High School, I'd never felt safer.

Maybe honesty does get you somewhere.


End file.
